The present invention relates to an apparatus for cleaning textile machines. In particular, the present invention relates to a nozzle for use in such cleaning apparatuses. In these apparatuses pneumatic nozzles are displaceable between an active straight (rigid and inflated) position and an inactive (deflated and fall-down) position. The nozzles are connected with hoses that hang on opposite sides of a textile machine to be cleaned, and are displaceable to accommodate the width of the machine and pass other obstacles that may be encountered when the apparatus passes past the textile machine. The nozzles serve to inject pressurized air for cleaning surfaces of the textile machine and for eliminating the rest of threads at bottoms of spindles of the textile machines to be cleaned.
At present, several systems with displaceable nozzles are known in which the nozzles are displaceable upon encountering an obstacle during displacement of the cleaning apparatus past a textile machine. The known displaceable nozzle systems are usually of a mechanical type in which the nozzles are automatically displaced by appropriate drive means when encountering an obstacle having a width that is larger than the width between the nozzles in a working or active position thereof.
The systems described above are disclosed in Spanish Patents 88.03601, 88.03845, 88.03846, and 89.01349 all issued to the applicant herein. These patents describe and claim several solutions that permit to achieve a complete cleaning of a textile machine without any hazard to the nozzles of the displaceable hoses and wherein a collision between nozzles and a textile machine or other obstacle is prevented.